Final Fantasy Knights Character & Monster Popularity Poll Translation

[Note: The following feature was taken from the 1992 book Final Fantasy Knights, pgs. 96 & 97, and originally comes from an apparent regular Final Fantasy fan feature by the same name in the magazine Hippon Super!. The book reprint does not mention when the poll was conducted, though footnote musings (about how maybe another poll should be held now that it had been "a little over a year" since FF4 came out) indicate that it was shortly after FF4's July 1991 Japanese release date. I thought it was an interesting snapshot of FF character popularity in Japan around the time of FF4's release. The Western character names are used for convenience's sake.]

Final Fantasy Series Character Popularity Poll Results

Counting Down from 10 to 1

Below are the results of the FF Character Popularity Poll present in Hippon Super!'s article "The 7th Roundtable of the FF Knights." Given how popular the feature was, we thought we'd present it again here!

First up are places 10 to 5:

10th

Aria/Elia, Maiden of Water

44

9th

White Mage

57

7th (tie)

Gordon

59

7th (tie)

Minwu

59

6th

Edge

61

5th

Cecil

66

It's a pity that Desch, who was in 8th place at the midway point of the poll, ultimately got bumped out of the top 10. On the other hand, Minwu experienced a sudden surge of support as the deadline for the poll approached. Gordon was in 10th at the midpoint, but he won enough votes to capture 7th place along with Minwu. Edge also saw a spike in support that earned him a place on the list. 10th through 5th are largely occupied by characters from FF2 and FF3, so the upper ranks have gotta be dominated by FF4, right?

4th

Rosa

66

2nd

Kain

85

2nd

Palom & Porom

85

Of course. So who ended up in 1st?

1st

Rydia

134

Yep. Rydia captured the hearts of both male and female fans, and that led her to a landslide victory.

Just Out of the Running

So who tried but ultimately just couldn't make it into the top 10?

Geomancer

Onion Knight

Black Mage

Leila

Hilda

Firion

FF2 Cid

Yang & his wife

Ranger

Scott

The Four Old Men from FF3

...and many more.

Final Fantasy Series Monster Popularity Poll Results

From 10th to 1st

And now we have the Character Popularity Poll: Monster Edition! Again, we'll start by presenting the 10th- through 5th-place winners, in order. Which monsters won the fans' hearts?

10th

Toad Lady/Bog Witch

3

8th

Leviathan

8

8th

The Magus Sisters

8

6th

Calcobrena

12

6th

Bahamut

12

5th

Asura

17

Maybe it's because the monster poll had a shorter voting window, but the characters here didn't get as many votes. Perhaps that's why the list is composed completely of monsters from FF4, which voters would have played very shortly beforehand and which would have been fresh in their minds. I mean, there were some pretty neat monsters in FF2 and FF3, you know. Below 10th place is just a free-for-all - a hodgepodge of monsters who got one or two votes, with some voters even asking, "Hey, was there a monster like this? I can't remember!"
Next up, we have 4th through 2nd place!

4th

Golbez

43

3rd

Bomb

50

2nd

Rubicante

61

And who took 1st?

1st

Barbariccia

89

Proof that you Final Fantasy Knights are suckers for sex appeal! ~O ho ho ho ho~

Translated by R. Capowski, RACapowski@sceneryrecalled.com, 8/2/18. Final Fantasy IV is property of Square Enix, which has not sanctioned this document.